A Bolt From the Blue
by Kuroshiro-Kage
Summary: Sonic gets a shock when a letter to Amy's leads him into a huge surprise party for his birthday! Delighted, the blue hedgehog has every intention of enjoying it to the fullest. But the betrayal of a close friend in the worst way possible threatens to end Sonic's fun...and his life.


Sonic pushed open the door to a surprisingly dark room, devoid of anything he'd expected from a visit with Amy. The last time he'd received an invitation to her house, she'd treated him to what literally resembled a calculated ambush. It was that same day's events that caused him to seriously second guess coming back, less he be subjected to psychotic affectionate torture. But this time, even with him being expected, her house was quiet. No overly excited pink girl rushing at him with glossy pink lips. No narrowly avoided strawberry flavored kisses. Did she forget he was coming?

He snorted in derision. The day Amy forgot he was due at her home was the day he proclaimed an undying, devoted love for Shadow.

The torn pink envelope in his hand crumpled noisily as he tightened his grip. It had been on his kitchen table that morning, smelling apprehensively of overbearing rose incense. A sense of violation nagged at him as the realization sunk in that there was only one way it could have gotten there. The idea manifested as visions of a ninja suit-clad Amy Rose that crept silently through his house, picking through his possessions and standing over his bed while he slept. Under the hood covering her mouth, her grin was so wide it could have split her face in two. He groaned. That was sure to revisit him in a long, drawn out nightmare.

He brought the decorated pink paper up to his eyes again, scanning the hand-written note to make sure he hadn't gotten anything wrong.

_Hi, there, Sonic! I'm sure you want to know why I took my time to write this. Don't worry too much! I'll explain everything to you in person. Meet me at my house at five o' clock, okay?_

_ Love, Amy Rose_

Sonic sighed. No, everything checked out. Maybe she was taking a nap?

The blue hedgehog took the first few steps into the room to have his vision blinded by the lights suddenly switching on, illuminating the dark house. He blinked in confusion, regaining sight, taking in the room in front of him. Brightly colored wall ribbons spiraled over the walls, and balloons in every shade of blue imaginable bobbed freely in the air. As the door passed by a certain point at the hinges, confetti cascaded down from the ceiling and covered his cerulean fur and a great part of the floor in a dusting of shiny white glitter. Before he could react, cheers exploded from around the room that filled his ears with a mixture of voices. Every one shouted the same word in practiced unison:

"**Surprise**!"

He lifted his eyes to a long banner that draped from one side of the room to the next that read, in huge blue and yellow letters, _Happy Birthday Sonic! _Underneath it stood every one of his closest friends surrounding a white table simply covered with all sorts of delicious looking treats. Vanilla and Cream must have worked hours to come up with the extreme diversity of the food. Another table held about twenty wrapped presents in variations of blue paper and bows. On top of yet another, pushed to the very back of the room for space purposes, was a huge stereo system complete with speakers that looked big enough to shatter every window in Amy's house at full blast. _God_, he couldn't wait to try it! Vector leaned on the wall beside the hookup, giving him a proud smirk when he noticed his speculation.

Impressive of all was the towering three layer cake, frosted thick with deep blue icing and embellished with identical dots of yellow around the sides. He could almost feel the warmth radiating from the freshly baked masterpiece, and the chocolate scent wafted temptingly into his nose. Striped yellow and white candles pushed into the soft top layer formed a cute decorative star shape—seventeen in all.

He didn't have much more time to admire before Amy rushed at him and enveloped him in a sort of hyper hug. Her bubblegum quills bounced over her shoulders as she moved, looking up at him with a dazzling smile. It was incredibly infectious, and he felt a grin of his own cross his face.

"Happy birthday! Do you like it?" Amy asked as she separated from him, but still close enough to be debatably violating his personal space. "I mean, I know I couldn't get the right stupid ice cream, and the store was all out of yellow balloons. But do you like it?" Her jade eyes widened hugely, waiting for immediate feedback.

An amazingly well choreographed display of decor, automatic confetti rain that shot at him from the ceiling, about every single awesome food he could hope to imagine just crying for him to devour on the long white table, and she was apologizing for a specific type of balloon. Exactly how long had it taken his friends' combined efforts to make all this possible? How much had they done already for him, and she was afraid he wouldn't care for the effort over a colored balloon and ice cream? Sometimes Amy could be so incredibly…eccentric.

Sonic laughed, shaking his head. "Of course. I love it! Who cares about some balloon?"

To his relief, she giggled happily and delivered a second hyper-ish hug. Much better than a giant, magically appearing hammer to the face, he decided smugly. When she broke from the second embrace and moved out of his line of vision, he saw Tails raising his eyebrows inquisitively at the sight of them. He felt his muzzle burn with heat and retreated back a step, mouthing "shut the hell up, Tails" with a roguish smirk.

"Happy birthday, Sonic!" smiled the yellow fox kit, blue eyes shining up at his best friend. "I told Amy with all the components already in play, it was highly probable missing balloons would escape your notice."

While Sonic racked his brain for a moment to mull over the smart sounding words, Amy stomped her foot in annoyance and glared at Tails. "I didn't want anything, and I mean _anything_, wrong with his party!" She stressed seriously. "Don't you realize how close those forgotten balloons were to putting today in danger of completely sucking?"

"He would have had no idea if you didn't tell him," Tails said simply.

A sharp intake of breath. "That would be lying," she pouted.

"No, just not telling the whole truth," countered Tails.

As Amy took a threatening step towards him, he yelped and propelled himself back a few feet.

A rough punch on the shoulder caused Sonic to reel forward and stumble uncontrollably, shattering his fragile thought process. Reeling for a moment, he balanced his arms out at his sides to regain control. He growled and wheeled around to find Knuckles laughing uncontrollably at the folly, holding up his hand. "S-Sorry! Hahaha…don't know my own strength!"

"Learn it, Knucklehead," he glowered at the crimson echidna choking on his own laughter. Knuckles choking. The idea tugged the corners of his lips upwards. Sometimes he could just imagine what it would be like if he was strong like he was fast. Storming after him in two seconds flat, his fist colliding with echidna face…

"Anyway, happy birthday," Knuckles said, recovering from the fit with a shake of his quills. Were they even fit to be considered quills? Or maybe some form of tribal dreadlocks? A shudder passed through his body as a mental image of an echidna originally looking like a simple hedgehog with normal quills, but then getting them split in half to look like Knuckles' did. Just...yuck.

"Thanks," He replied half-heartedly, the picture freshly engraved in his mind.

"Seventeen, eh? Well, welcome to maturity!" Knuckles teased. "Huh. Would even have use for a car?"

_Wonderful observation. All hail Knuckles, almighty king of the obvious! _"No," Sonic replied, smiling a little from his contemptuous thoughts. Why would someone who was able to move at the speed of sound without breaking a sweat possibly want a sixty-mile per hour loser machine that he'd have to abide by _speed limits_ in? He could see it now. The car would be destroyed in the most creatively beautiful of ways as soon as it pissed him off.

Truthfully, Sonic hadn't really thought about being seventeen as cause for a spectacular occasion. That morning he'd almost relished in the idea of having a quiet birthday at home. Not that he wasn't sure Tails would have called or came over, but that was expected. Besides, he was so used to the fox kit crashing at his house it would most likely still have qualified as quiet to him. He hadn't at all been ready for all this fuss over him. He wondered fleetingly how long it had taken the others to put the whole thing together.

Reality slammed back into him as he saw blue eyes approach through the haze of his thoughts. He straightened, putting on a gigantic smile that he hoped was convincing. A tiny voice in his head began to laugh at his actions, clutching its stomach (did voices have stomachs?) in enjoyably hilarious pain.

"Amy got little hats," Tails grinned as he joined by his side, cradling it in his hands. It was a little pointy cone made of cardboard wrapped in shiny blue foil. A miniature yellow bow was sloppily pinned to the tip of it. Sonic laughed, grabbing it from him and swinging it by the elastic cord around his finger.

Giggling, Tails pointed up at one of his huge yellow ears. "I thought maybe it'd fit on yours? Definitely fits on a _corner_ of mine."

Humoring the idea, Sonic dropped the cone over his left ear with a snort. At the same time, the stereo roared to life with the upbeat beginning to a song.

"She does mean well," Tails continued, taking a sip from his cup. "Amy, I mean." Of course she did. For someone who couldn't resist smothering him every time they made eye contact, he was sure of it. "Oh, by the way. That confetti? My creation." He smiled proudly. "A little string here, connected there. I see it worked well."

Sonic's gaze wandered to the peppering of sparkles still gleaming in his fur and stuck on his gloves. "Uh, yeah. Think you could've turned down the heat, buddy?" He really hoped the tiny dots weren't hard to wash off. There was not a single aspiration in his body to live as a walking disco ball.

"Of course not!" The little fox laughed. "Consider it the first part of your birthday present."

"And the second?" Sonic asked playfully.

"Oh don't worry," Tails smirked. "That's for later. I can't let you see it until later." A mischievous glimmer lit his eyes. Sonic raised his eyebrows at the secretive way he was speaking. This was Tails. Tails wasn't the secret type of person.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were keeping something from me." He remarked, voicing the thought.

The look he received was almost adorable on the ten-year-old's face. "Of course I am," he smiled sweetly. "How else would it be considered a surprise?"

Well, he did have a point. Sonic tilted his head, his gaze wandering to the wide table of food. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't had time to eat breakfast before curiosity had led him on Amy's letter chase. He was _starving. _He nodded shortly at Tails, turning for it.

"Hey, Sonic, wait!" Tails called after him.

"Huh?" He paused before he had taken two steps, turning back to the fox a bit irritated. _Come on, dude. I'm hungry. _

The yellow kit dropped his voice to a quiet tone, a happy smile on his face. "Well," he said with a conspiratorial chuckle, "I guess I can give you my present early. If you want it." His double tails swung rhythmically behind him. Sonic blinked at the offer.

"I mean, yeah!" agreed Sonic cheerily. He wasn't about to pass up on an opportunity like that! But it was a little weird he'd let him do it. "If you're sure," he continued in a lighter tone.

"I am," Tails assured him with a laugh. "I'm just really excited to show you, and I can't do it in a box like everybody else. It's not exactly portable."

Sonic shrugged, following his friend out the door. If he said so. He couldn't help but let his mind conjure up crazy possibilities of what it was Tails was so excited about. _Not portable_? Knuckles' voice floated back to the front of his mind, about the accused use for a car. _Please, please don't be some strange high-tech Tails car, _he pleaded silently. _I'd rather have cake. _

The bright, buttery sun in the sky sent beams of light over a little wooden shed, half shrouded in shadow from the neighboring trees. It looked ancient, battered relentlessly by storms and wind for years. Chips of discolored paint lay in flakes on the ground and stuck weakly on the old walls—it must have once been red, from the washed out color. Sonic had seen the abandoned shack many times from Amy's window. A shiver ran up his spine.

"Uh…here?" He asked innocently. A stick crunched loudly under his shoe.

Tails nodded enthusiastically. "Yup! Had to hide it somewhere. No one's been in here for a long time, and I don't think the squirrels mind." He pushed the door in with a piercing squeak, nearly breaking it from the rusty hinges. "Come on!" he said, the tips of his tails disappearing into the black shed.

Hesitant and skeptical, Sonic followed his friend into the darkness. His eyes were useless, searching blindly for any sign of yellow. Shouldn't there be some of that bright light coming in through a window or open door? He held out a hand awkwardly, waving it around, but the black was so thick he couldn't see even the tiniest flicker of movement. "Hey, Tails?" he called out, certain he couldn't be too far from him in the tiny shack.

**BLAM!** An unbearable force slammed like a meteor into Sonic's head, forcing him to the rough concrete with a hard slap. He cried out in pain, little white dots popping up in his vision and crackling into stars like fireworks. Warmth filled his mouth with the taste of blood. He searched desperately to see his attacker, but there was only the unforgiving darkness tinged with red. Red that was immediately engulfed in the hungry shadows, fueling them to wrap around him like a tight cocoon of freezing air. A groan escaped his lips before the black prison closed on his throat, and he fell away.


End file.
